BY MAX GILLIES

TODAY’S MASTERS

LRONOOKING DONOUGHE ’SL PAOCINTINGALS OF WESTERN

Knoxville Shadow (from the 90 Neighborhoods series), 2015, oil on panel, 9 x 12 in., Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh

084 SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2017 FINEARTCONNOISSEUR· COM on Donoughe (b. 1958) is one of those American artists and during workshops offered by the Plein-Air Painters of America. In intimately linked with the region where he lives. When 1980 Donoughe moved directly from college to Pittsburgh, but he did not we hear the name Winslow Homer, we picture coastal love “Steel City” at first. For one thing, it was then in the throes of losing Maine, or perhaps the Bahamas; for Andrew Wyeth, it’s its famous steel industry to foreign competition, and for another, it is a the Brandywine Valley and Cushing, Maine; for Edward topographically diverse city that takes a long time to get to know. Because Hopper, New York City and Cape Cod. These artists were Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods do not interconnect, residents tend to be not uninterested in the rest of the world, it’s just that there was so much insulated, passionate about their own communities yet unfamiliar with to record in their own corners of it. others relatively close by. For Ron Donoughe, that enchanted terrain is , Before becoming a full-time painter in 1991, Donoughe got to know Rwhich encompasses not only Pittsburgh (metropolitan population, 2.3 his region not only by making and teaching art, but also by working as a million), but also the Allegheny Mountains that form part of the Appa- grave-digger, chicken catcher, and landscaper. Today he lives and works lachians, as well as rolling hills and valleys dotted with towns, farms, industrial complexes, and mines. Donoughe knows this area so well that he rarely bothers to paint its classically attractive, touristic, or glamorous scenes, preferring instead its everyday ones — the “real” places where regular people live and work. In all kinds of weather, he trains his eye on landscapes, cityscapes, and industrial sites, ven- turing outdoors daily to capture the shifting of light and shadow across varied surfaces, conveying visual truth while luring viewers with intriguing angles or vistas. In some ways, Donoughe’s work resembles Hopper’s: his bright, clear light sharpens the richly colored forms of buildings and streets that are notably devoid of human life, even of motor vehicles. Neither painter suggests the narratives of people, but rather how the spaces occupied by those people resonate silently with their hopes, successes, and disappointments. Donoughe usually begins by painting a small study on panel to establish his general concept, composition, and color masses; these boards measure 9 x 12 or 11 x 14 inches. If he chooses to take the pro- Number 12 Pour, 2011, oil on linen, 30 x 40 in., private collection ject further, he consults that original study while painting a larger canvas. All of this occurs on site outdoors (“en plein air”) in a huge range of tem- peratures. On exceptionally cold or wet days (not uncommon in western Pennsylvania), Donoughe takes photographs of the scene and develops in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, which has blossomed in the the related painting back at his studio. A visit to his impressive website past decade thanks to art and design professionals like himself. His large reveals the whole gamut of American life: houses, churches, alleys, streets, studio is located in an 1881 building with north-facing windows, a space trails, highways, factories, steel mills, warehouses, barns, service stations, that allows him to create, exhibit, and sell under one roof. cemeteries, pools, reservoirs, fields, staircases, boats, and rail lines. Occa- In an art world that increasingly prizes huge works, Donoughe sionally these are interspersed with the stunning vistas that hilly regions might be seen as disadvantaged in that he makes pictures averaging only can provide: a street of humble rowhouses may overlook the skyscrap- 11 x 14 inches in size. He has made a virtue of this, however, by creating ers of downtown Pittsburgh, or the edge of a suburban housing tract may multi-painting installations that “wow” viewers and draw them into abut some unexpectedly unspoiled woodlands. the worlds he has captured. A superb example is on view until October Donoughe knows these sites intimately because he grew up in 7 at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, which happens to be in Loretto, 80 miles east of Pittsburgh. He majored in art education at Indi- Donoughe’s hometown of Loretto. Like his other installations, Labor ana University of Pennsylvania, in the town of Indiana not far from home, and Landscape: 100 Paintings of the Allegheny Mountain Region by Ron and studied further at the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland Donoughe is a visually immersive experience. Visitors are surrounded by

FINEARTCONNOISSEUR· COM SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2017 085 (ABOVE) Roosevelt House, 2009, oil on linen, 24 x 36 in., private collection (BELOW) A portion of Ron Donoughe’s Essence of Pittsburgh, on permanent view at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in

086 SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2017 FINEARTCONNOISSEUR· COM a dense hang of paintings that depict what the artist found as he drove around Cambria and Blair counties, stopping to paint businesses, farms, Shadow Side, 2016, oil on linen, 16 x 20 in., collection of the artist steel mills, even a pretzel factory and taxidermy school. In some cases, Donoughe made appointments to be shown around formally, in other cases he just painted by the side of the road. For this and all of his projects, in alphabetical order at the rate of two panels per week — stopping only the artist walks or drives around the area to get a sense of context, and for a spate of bitterly cold weather. This installation “puts a face” on this he is glad to converse with locals when they approach his portable easel. city’s humanity that no photography campaign ever could. It is the crea- Their insights — and very often their pride in the neighborhood — inspire tion of an artist who has stood in each neighborhood’s streets, spoken and inform the painting process. with its residents, breathed its air, felt its spirit. Projects like this should The project on view at Loretto now is the latest in a growing list. be pursued across the U.S. for all sorts of reasons, but especially because On permanent view at Philadelphia’s massive Pennsylvania Conven- they compel us to see — really see — where we live, and thus who we are, tion Center is Donoughe’s Essence of Pittsburgh — a rare and respect- how we resemble and differ from one another. Donoughe’s installations ful acknowledgment of Pittsburgh’s existence from its great urban rival make permanent such self-recognition — a valuable contribution to his across the state. Installed in the performing arts center at Indiana Univer- home region and to American art generally. sity of Pennsylvania is a group of 80 oils titled Homage to Indiana County, and in the student union at Westminster College is the 100-panel project 10 Square Miles, which illustrates the campus, the quaint town of New Wilmington surrounding it, and the farmland nearby, much of it tended Information: Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Saint Francis University, by Amish families. Franciscan Way, Loretto, PA 15940, 814.472.3920, sama-art.org Perhaps Donoughe’s most visible installation is 90 Pittsburgh Neigh- borhoods, now on permanent view at Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center, near the original set of the children’s television program Mister Rogers’ Max Gillies is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur. Neighborhood, which Fred Rogers filmed in Pittsburgh from 1968 through 2001. For an entire year, Donoughe painted Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods —

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